Government shutdown ends with Trump signature on spending bill

The House has narrowly passed a sweeping bipartisan budget accord, ending an hours-long government shutdown and clearing a path for huge spending increases for both the Pentagon and domestic programs. The Senate passed the measure earlier Friday. (Feb. 9)
AP

Sen. Rand Paul, center, takes a brief break from the floor of the U.S. Senate to pose for a photo with Rep. Justin Amash, left, and Rep. Thomas Massie in Washington on Feb. 8.(Photo: Getty Images)

WASHINGTON – President Trump signed a $400 billion budget deal Friday, hours after the House passed it in a pre-dawn vote, reopening the federal government after it was partially shut down for the second time in less than a month.

The House voted 240-186, with 73 Democrats and 167 Republicans voting in favor. The hours-long, middle-of-the-night shutdown was the shortest since the 1970s, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Trump tweeted Friday that he signed the legislation for the government to officially reopen, just as the workday started for millions of federal workers.

Just signed Bill. Our Military will now be stronger than ever before. We love and need our Military and gave them everything — and more. First time this has happened in a long time. Also means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!

"Just signed Bill. Our Military will now be stronger than ever before," the president tweeted. "We love and need our Military and gave them everything — and more. First time this has happened in a long time. Also means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!"

“Ultimately, neither side got everything it wanted in this agreement, but we reached a bipartisan compromise that puts the safety and well-being of the American people first," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement.

As promised, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., voted against the bill after her eight-hour marathon speech Wednesday, protesting congressional inaction on protections for DREAMers, undocumented immigrants brought to the USA as children.

Pelosi issued a statement early Friday, saying Ryan "refused to make a real commitment" to schedule a vote to protect DREAMers. In September, Trump announced the elimination of an Obama-era policy to protect these immigrants from deportation, setting a deadline of March 5 for Congress to address their status through legislation.

Pelosi and other Democrats called on Ryan to guarantee an open debate on legislation — something Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnnell, R-Ky., promised in the Senate. Pelosi led Democrats in reiterating that demand in a letter sent to Ryan just after the shutdown began at midnight.

"In contrast, Senator McConnell not only gave his commitment to the Senators, he has already begun the process to bring a bill to the Senate floor," she wrote. “The fight in the House to protect DREAMers is not over. I’m greatly disappointed that the Speaker does not have the courage to lift the shadow of fear from the lives of these inspiring young people.”

This fight is not over. While I am disappointed that @SpeakerRyan lacks the courage lift the shadow of fear from these inspiring young ppl, I have hope.

Ryan said he intends to solve the problem, but he will bring up a bill only if Trump supports it.

“We will bring a solution to the floor, one the president will sign,” he said Thursday. It is not clear what the president will demand in an immigration bill. His public statements have embraced a wide range of policy options.

The GOP's hard-line House Freedom Caucus members said that before Ryan became speaker in 2015, he promised them he would not bring up an immigration bill that did not have majority GOP support.

Several Democrats said Thursday that despite Pelosi's protests, their leaders weren't twisting arms to vote one way or the other.

Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., said "do what you want to do" was the message from Pelosi. He voted against the bill.

Rep. Cheri Bustos, a Democrat who represents a swing district in Illinois, told USA TODAY on Thursday she thought the bill was a good deal for Democrats. She said she didn't think DREAMers needed to be "jumbled together" with spending legislation.

"We got a lot of what we’ve asked for, whether it’s opioid funding, whether it’s transportation funding, defense — I’ve got an arsenal in my district, which is one of our largest employers — domestic spending," said Bustos, who voted in favor.

Ryan’s promise of an immigration solution was enough to secure the support of Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., who voted against previous spending bills because they did not include immigration.

Curbelo said Ryan’s statement was “his strongest commitment yet,” and he was “more hopeful than ever” of a solution.

The Freedom Caucus took an official position against the deal. Though it supported additional defense spending, it argued the deal bloats the size of government.

"I promised my constituents in Western NC that I would work to cut government spending," the group's chairman, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., tweeted Thursday night. "This budget deal does the opposite--it expands government spending well beyond the caps, by almost 15%. We have to do better."

I promised my constituents in Western NC that I would work to cut government spending. This budget deal does the opposite--it expands government spending well beyond the caps, by almost 15%.

The House vote followed Senate approval of the budget pact that was initially delayed by a protest from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. The Senate bill passed 71-28.

The budget agreement is attached to a six-week temporary funding bill needed to keep the government operating and to provide time to implement the budget pact.

The spending deal eliminates strict budget caps — set in 2011 to reduce the federal deficit — and paves the way for Congress to increase defense spending by $165 billion and hike domestic spending by $131 billion over the next two years. All told, the agreement, negotiated by congressional leaders and released late Wednesday night, provides for more than $400 billion in new spending — $300 billion above the caps and more than $100 billion in “emergency” funding that doesn’t count against the spending caps.

The Senate vote, which took place just before 2 a.m., capped a topsy-turvy Thursday that featured filibuster threats, fuming congressional leaders and frenzied vote counting.

Paul delayed the final Senate vote until after a midnight deadline when funding for the government ran out and a partial shutdown took effect. Like other conservatives, Paul said the budget agreement would pave the way for big spending and ballooning deficits, and he said he was willing to force a shutdown to draw attention to the problem.

“We have Republicans hand-in-hand with Democrats offering us trillion-dollar deficits,” Paul said on the Senate floor Thursday night. “I want people to feel uncomfortable" voting in favor of big deficits.

Under Senate rules, Paul had to relent at 1 a.m. Friday, when Senate leaders won a motion to take up the bill, then ushered it toward final passage. Fifteen other Republicans joined Paul in voting against the bill, many expressing similar objections about the increased deficit spending.

Eleven Democrats and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont voted no. Although it included new money for health care, education infrastructure and other cherished Democratic priorities, several Democrats said they could not support a deal that did nothing to protect the DREAMers.